About
The spaces people inhabit have the power to shape how they live, connect, and feel. For Dr. Macarena Rau Vargas, this understanding has become the foundation of a remarkable professional journey dedicated to making cities safer through architecture, environmental design, community participation, and informed public policy.
An architect, Master in Architecture, and PhD in Architecture and Urbanism, Dr. Rau has built extensive experience leading urban security projects and initiatives across Chile, Latin America, and the Caribbean. At the center of her work is CPTED, Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, a methodology that explores how thoughtful design and management of physical environments can contribute to the prevention of violence and crime.
Her academic foundation reflects the multidisciplinary perspective that has shaped her career. She studied architecture at the University of Chile, completed a Master in Architecture at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, and earned a Doctorate in Urbanism from the University of the Bío-Bío. In 2021, she also received an Honoris Causa Doctorate from Claustro Doctoral México.
Over the years, Dr. Rau has taken CPTED principles far beyond theory, applying them to complex urban realities across multiple countries. Her experience encompasses diagnosis, strategy development, project design, implementation, training, and impact evaluation. She has served as an international urban security consultant in initiatives involving organizations such as the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank, while also contributing to projects connected with UN-Habitat and working with central and local governments.
Her relationship with CPTED stretches back more than two decades. In 2000, alongside Robert Stephens, she participated in what her CV identifies as the first application of CPTED in Latin America, working in the Santiago Metropolitan Region communities of La Granja and Peñalolén through Fundación Paz Ciudadana’s Safe Public Spaces initiative. This early experience helped establish a direction that would eventually take her work across borders and place her among the prominent international voices advancing environmental approaches to urban safety.
Her subsequent projects demonstrate the geographic and institutional breadth of that journey. Through World Bank-related assignments, she applied CPTED in Recife, Brazil; Tegucigalpa, Honduras; and San Salvador, El Salvador. Her work later included high-risk schools in Medellín, Colombia, and Managua, Nicaragua, as well as participation in the development of educational resources and programs focused on violence and crime prevention.
In Chile, Dr. Rau brought her expertise into national public institutions. At the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning, she coordinated the National Competition for Good Urban Practices and designed and led the Safe Urban Spaces Project. She also contributed to the Safe Urban Spaces Manual and to the development of crime indicators within the Urban Observatory Project. She later held responsibilities within the Citizen Security and Public Safety divisions of Chile’s Ministry of the Interior, including leadership of the Violence and Crime Prevention Unit and advisory work in situational prevention.
Her entrepreneurial journey has allowed her to extend this expertise through specialized consulting. As founder of Publika Consulting (PBK), she has been associated with strategies, projects, and studies addressing violence and urban crime prevention across the Latin American and Caribbean region. Her portfolio includes public-security diagnostics in Chile, CPTED strategies in Mexico, research for the Inter-American Development Bank, work in Quito connected with UNDP, and initiatives involving commercial spaces, schools, public officials, and law-enforcement professionals.
Perhaps one of the clearest reflections of Dr. Rau’s global leadership is her longstanding involvement with the International CPTED Association (ICA). After serving as Director for Latin America and the Caribbean and later as Vice President, she became President of the association in 2017. She is also President and founder of the Corporation for the Prevention of Crime through Environmental Design Chile, further strengthening her role in developing and disseminating CPTED knowledge.
Education has remained another important dimension of her contribution. Dr. Rau has taught and shared CPTED and related urban-development knowledge through universities and professional programs in Chile and Mexico. Her training experience has reached government officials, police officers, students, urban practitioners, and professionals across the region. From Honduras and Mexico to Chile, Brazil, and El Salvador, her work has helped translate methodology into practical knowledge that others can carry into their own communities and institutions.
Her ideas have also reached international audiences. She has participated in conferences and seminars across different continents, including United Nations-related events in Kenya, South Africa, and Mexico, and has spoken at TEDx Río de la Plata in Argentina. Her written contributions include studies, manuals, academic research, and publications addressing CPTED, citizen security, spatial diagnosis, community action, and urban environments, with her publication record extending to Seguridad Urbana booklets in 2024.
What distinguishes Dr. Macarena Rau Vargas’s journey is the continuity between knowledge and action. Architecture, for her, has evolved into a platform for addressing one of the most fundamental needs of society: the ability to experience cities and communities with greater safety and confidence.
As urban centers around the world confront increasingly complex questions around security, inclusion, sustainability, and quality of life, her career demonstrates the importance of approaching these challenges through collaboration, evidence, environmental understanding, and community participation. Through decades of projects, public service, consulting, education, and international leadership, Dr. Rau continues to advance a vision in which safer cities are not simply protected spaces, but thoughtfully designed environments where communities can thrive.
